The South Couloir of Albright Peak, not to be confused with the massive “Southeast Couloir” drainage running directly to Phelps Lake, is a 3,000 foot fall-line descent with a variety of terrain, including a quirky approach, exposed entry, and a few tight chokes that may or may not beckon a rope.
This trip report is not current, but from from March 2024
The South Couloir of Albright Peak is in character with what I’ve come to expect from an adventure with Reed Finlay. I guess when you have multi-decade Teton ski mountaineering tenure, combing between the lines becomes necessary. This adventure was no exception. Accessing the top of the South Couloir summit involved a smorgasbord of scree down-scrambling, cornice navigation and cryptic route finding along the heavily featured Southwest Ridge. A steep, relatively pinner, vegetated couloir not unlike something you’d find in the annals of Teton Canyon dropped us into the South Couloir. A brief terraced cliff-band served as the first consequential obstacle, which we navigated with careful 45 degree jump turns to the edge, and an airy ski traverse into the friendly, open, gut of the line skier’s right. Thousands of feet of open 40 degree fall-line skiing would have been blissful had it not been for widespread refrozen avalanche debris disrupting every smooth patch after a few hundred feet. The snow was a mixed bag to the highest degree, powder on crust off the top, supportable powder in the steep chute entering the main couloir and sloppy Velcro-corn for the remaining 2,500 or so feet. I certainly tried my best despite not having yellow waxed yet this season.
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Around 8,000 feet the nature of the couloir switches dramatically as it winds through a few serious pinches. Not only are these extreme terrain traps for any avalanches above, but they harbor seasonal ice bulges and/or chockstones. By the time we reached the first crux, a body height iced up chockstone, the heat of the unfiltered rock sun was turning our expansive south facing descent into a solarium, with an eminent threat of wet slab avalanches from the many easterly chutes hanging overhead. With unfavorable landing conditions Reed and I passed our skis down and butt-slid, while Matt, a friendly splitbpoarder we inherited on the approach, was able to skid over on his board. A few hundred feet further was a dramatic cliff with terraced water ice that may or may not be listed as an early season ice climb in the Ortenburger-Jackson guide. Fortunately, the falls were chocked on skier’s left with ample snow for ski-through passage. The final 600 feet is a beautiful high-walled slot reminscent of a miniature Amore-A-Vida couloir, which, once we escaped the fall line, provided a nice apron of slarvy corn to the canyon bottom.
Reed said he didn’t think many have skied that line, and I certainly haven’t heard of any. In mid-winter powder conditions it could be one of the sweetest and most accessible 3,000 foot fall line descents in the range – however, only if the chockstone and ice cruxes are filled in. If I return earlier in the season I would probably bring a short rope. Just like all the pure south facing lines that drop into Death Canyon, the first serious warm up of the year will desecrate the couloir with avalanche debris, and sadly, the window between “filled in” and wet slab avalanches seems to be closing by the year. As for our team, it’s always a delight to ski with Reed, and our tag-a-long friend Matt was a welcomed positive addition to the descent. He’s new to steep skiing in the Teton Range, and his unfiltered appreciation for what was otherwise a quite average descent kept the stoke especially high. We rejoiced over beer, kombucha, salads and pizza at Dornan’s afterward, a fitting end to a great day that gets me fired up for winter 2025.
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DISCLAIMER
Ski mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing and all other forms of mountain recreation are inherently dangerous. Should you decide to attempt anything you read about in this article, you are doing so at your own risk! This article is written to the best possible level of accuracy and detail, but I am only human – information could be presented wrong. Furthermore, conditions in the mountains are subject to change at any time. Ten Thousand Too Far and Brandon Wanthal are not liable for any actions or repercussions acted upon or suffered from the result of this article’s reading.
Ten Thousand Too Far 
Skied that lower chute complex and the East facing panel above it, but not from the Albright summit. We approached up Death Canyon and largely followed the summer trail. The “Poubelle” of Death Canyon
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